WELCOME to Haunted Wirral, a feature series written by world famous psychic researcher, Tom Slemen for the Globe.

In this latest tale, Tom explores the mystery behind Spring-Heeled Jack in Wallasey...

Constable Jeffs was accustomed to the usual lot of the policeman.

On December 31, 1877 he had been mentioned in the local newspapers after he had caught a fowl-stealer named John Rowland red-handed.

Rowland had been throwing five chickens – the property of Mr T.B. Hughes of Seabank Cottage in Liscard – into a large burlap sack when PC Jeffs nabbed him. Rowland was committed to trial and the magistrates complimented Constable Jeffs upon his vigilance in apprehending the thief.

Not long after that, Jeffs, without the aid of a ladder, rescued a 5-year-old boy who had somehow climbed out of his bedroom window to end up dangling from the gutter of his Wallasey home.

And now, in November 1878, Constable Jeffs was to face one of the most incredible tasks of his entire police career – the apprehension of one mysterious mischief-maker known the length and breadth of the country as Spring-Heeled Jack.

As his strange moniker suggests, Jack was able to jump – and I am not talking about the type of jump made by the likes of the Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (who can leap 44cm into the air from a standing start and 78cm with a run-up) – or some mere human high-jump record achieved after years of training in plyometrics – I am talking about making leaps through the air ranging from 25 feet to 100 feet.

In September 2019, a man named Brett Williams made a standing jump of 5ft 5 inches in height – and he had trained three years to achieve this new record.

Spring-Heeled Jack was said to have jumped from pavement to rooftop and back – and his superhuman feats were witnessed by soldiers, doctors, policemen, detectives, a magistrate, and even the Duke of Wellington (who chased him through London on horseback).

Spring-Heeled Jack – also known as the Leaping Terror, was first reported in 1837 in the Barnes area of London, and with his pointed ears, strange helmet, glowing eyes, Mephistophelian grinning face and long flowing black cape, he was like some cross between Batman and the Joker.

Time and time again the police made elaborate plans to catch this unearthly prankster but he always seemed to be a step ahead of the law.

He screeched with laughter one evening in the 1870s after being shot at point-blank range by sentries at the Aldershot military camp in Hampshire and when a farmer blasted the sprightly devil with a shotgun he fell about laughing; Spring-Heeled Jack seemed to be bulletproof.

He moved away from London and visited many towns, hamlets and the major cities, where his main pastime was assaulting young ladies and breathing a strange type of blue fire into their faces, as well as impersonating officers of the law – effected by stealing policemen’s hats and capes.

In 1878 he was seen all over the Egremont area, and at first, no one wanted to believe that the ultimate bogeyman that had been featured in the press had now arrived in Wallasey.

One moonlit night during his nerve-jangling visitation, Jack jumped from the high wall of a house where Rudgrave Square now stands, and he landed on the back of a policeman – and he refused to let go.

He clung onto the poor copper, screaming hysterically with laughter, until PC Jeffs turned up.

The shadowy cloaked figure ran faster than a horse into the night with his shrieks of laughter echoing throughout the neighbourhood.

As the bounding blackguard cleared a 12-foot-high-wall, Jeffs saw his sinister silhouette cross the disc of the full moon.

Jeffs told his wife he was determined to capture the bizarre attacker, and on the following night, he put on a cape to cover his uniform and wore a wide-awake hat – a fashionable Quaker-styled hat – and Jeffs went off his beat and patrolled the areas where Springy had been ambushing and assaulting the local women folk.

A heavy rain then fell for three hours, and just after one in the morning, PC Jeffs was walking up an alleyway between two grand-looking houses when he heard a scream.

Spring-Heeled Jack had entered the attic quarters of three young maids via a skylight, and after tearing the clothes off one of the women, he had jumped out of the window, landing in the very alleyway PC Jeffs was running along on his way to render assistance to the ladies. Jack seemed startled as he landed a few feet away from the disguised policeman.

Jeffs produced a truncheon, and smashed it down on the outlandish-looking outlaw’s helmet.

Jeffs said he distinctly heard Jack cry out, "Oh! Ouch!" and he could see at close quarters that this was no devil or anything remotely supernatural – it was someone as human as himself, and he seemed to be wearing orange make up.

Jack swung his gauntlet at Jeffs, slapping him hard, then turned and tried to run off but the policeman grabbed his cloak and he heard it tear.

The brave policeman threw himself onto the costumed scoundrel, and they both landed in a large puddle of rainwater. Jeffs heard a sizzling sound, and then he received a hard punch to his jaw which threw him into a ditch.

Spring-Heeled Jack got to his feet and raised his hands in the same posture as a crucified person, and then a halo of orange light surrounded his body, which was clad in some black leathery material.

Sparks of electricity flew out of the fingertips of Jack, and then he jumped over a wall and escaped.

After that morning, Spring-Heeled Jack never again returned to Wallasey.

Haunted Liverpool 32 is out now on Amazon.